If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
A Q&A with co-director Marshall Curry
Jim Poe
11.10.2011 - Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman's
acclaimed documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation
Front has its Middle East Premiere at this year's ADFF in
the Our World section of films about the
environment. The confrontational film won an editing prize at the
Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered in February, along with
a number of other awards.
If a Tree Falls tells the story of
Daniel McGowan, a middle-class young man from suburban New York,
who stands accused by the US government of domestic terrorism.
McGowan had been a member of the notorious Earth Liberation Front
(ELF), a radical activist group that waged a campaign of sabotage
in the 1990s against logging companies and other interests they
accused of being environmentally destructive. Currently McGowan is
under house arrest and faces life in prison - though no one died in
any of the ELF's actions. The film explores the highly contentious
politics of activism and domestic security in the post-9/11 US.
Co-director Marshall Curry, who is scheduled to attend the
Festival, took time to answer a few questions about his challenging
film.
What initially led you to the material for If a Tree
Falls?
The film really dropped in my lap. My wife was running a domestic
violence organization; she came home from work one day and told me
that four federal agents had walked into her office and arrested
one of her employees - Daniel McGowan. He was accused of burning
two timber facilities in Oregon a few years before when he was part
of the radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, and
if convicted, would go to prison for the rest of his life. The
government considered the arson to be terrorism, and it seemed like
a really rich, complex story - about threats to the environment,
about how someone becomes radicalized, and about how society
defines terrorism. So [co-director and cinematographer] Sam
Cullman and I decided to jump in and find out more.
You've stated that you were striving for balance, if not
objectivity, in presenting this case. But did working on the film
alter your views at all?
Everyone we met surprised us and stretched our points of view -
from the members of the Earth Liberation Front, to the arson
victims, to the law enforcement folks. They constantly challenged
our preconceived notions, and so when Matt Hamachek and I edited
the film, we tried to build that same experience into its
structure. It takes audiences one way and then another, hopefully
nudging them out of their comfort zones, and giving them a more
nuanced understanding of a complicated - and very emotionally
charged - story.
Have there been strong reactions among audience members
at various festival screenings?
Yes, it's powerful material with deeply held points of view that
clash, so it elicits strong reactions. But we've been happy to see
that pretty much everyone - on whatever side of the argument they
sit - has felt that the film is an accurate telling of a difficult
story. The former spokesman for the ELF has written that he thinks
the film is important for people to see - from activists to police
officers - and the Federal Prosecutor who put the ELF members in
prison has written the same thing. We've been happy that the film
has elevated the conversation about activism and terrorism and
hasn't been dominated by people screaming at each other.
What might the film have to say to overseas audiences
about American politics and the justice system? Are the conflicts
depicted universal ones?
I think that there are some elements of the film that are uniquely
American - in particular America's response to the idea of
terrorism after 9/11. But most of these issues are universal. It's
a family story, a "coming-of-age" story about the main character's
increasing radicalization, and a "cops-and-robbers" thriller
about the investigation. It happens to be about environmentalism,
but it could be about any strongly held belief and youthful
passion.
What are your influences as far as film and filmmaking?
How are they reflected in If a Tree Falls?
I love documentaries and take ideas from all different kinds -
from observational or verité films like The War Room [D.A.
Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus' 1993 documentary about Bill Clinton's
presidential campaign], to personal films like Sherman's
March [Ross McElwee, 1987], to polemical films like
SuperSize Me [Morgan Spurlock, 2004]. I have learned a lot
by studying the documentaries I like - trying to figure out how
they were shot or edited, and why they work the way they do. I also
take a lot from fiction films and try to make the documentaries I
direct feel like fiction films. I want them to have drama and
suspense and strong characters, so that the audience leaves feeling
like they have watched a movie rather than
feeling like they sat through a lecture.
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
screens at ADFF on
Saturday, October 15 at 5:30 pm
and Monday, October 17 at 1:30
pm at VOX Cinemas.
Marshall Curry will appear at both screenings to introduce the film
and answer audience questions afterward.